2. What is Motivation?
Motivation is a state in which we are aroused and our behavior is goal directed
Motivational States
Are energizing  Activate or arouse behavior
Are directive  guide behavior toward satisfying goal
Persist  continues until goal is achieved
Vary in strength  based in internal and external factors
Up to now, we’ve talked about behavior in general, how we learn to do things; today we’ll talk about WHY we do thingsInternal  how long it’s been since you last ate; external  site of chocolate cake; smell of french fries

3. Function of Motivation
Regulatory  drives us to engage in behaviors that regulate internal states
Function  homeostasis
Purposive  drives us to engage in behaviors that fulfill personal goals
Function  achieve goal or desired outcome
Regulatory  nature  meet basic needs (i.e., four F’s) – driven by biological processes (e.g., neurobiological, hormonal, etc.)  have survival value – seek food when hungry because need food to survive.
Purposive  nurture – driven toward a goal – may be food, but may also be personal goal (e.g., acing a test) – drive by cognitive, social, and cultural processes or factors.
Go back to initial lecture – all behavior is a function of both nature and nurture

4. Regulatory Function

5. Instincts
Instincts  unlearned automatic actions that are triggered by external cues
Orienting to sound
Fixed Action Patterns
Instinctive behavior, similar to a reflex, that is produced in response to a releasing stimulus
E.g., Three-spined stickleback
Instincts have survival value – natural tendency to orient to loud noise gives us information needed to determine whether we need to avoid a dangerous situation – think about trying to cross a busy street – taught look both ways – tendency to orient to noise is a built-in mechanism that can help us when we forget to do that
Niko Tinbergen – studied three-spined stickleback.

6. Fixed Action Pattern
During mating season – males, have bright red underbelly; females have swollen silver belly. Any male who comes into another males territory will be attached. Tinbergen wanted to know what was the releasing stimulus for the aggressive behavior – does not matter how crude the stimulus (could be a wooden model with the underbelly painted red) male stickleback would attach. Conversely, silvery swollen underbelly would release mating behavior. Thus, the releasing stimulus for aggressive behavior was red in the underbelly. The aggressive behavior was the fixed action pattern.
D.Singh’s research on hip to waist ration  men prefer a certain hip-to-waist ratio because it says something about the reproductive capability of the woman

7. Needs, Drives, & Rewards Needs  state of deficiency or deprivation
Drives  psychological states activated to satisfy needs
Arousal  physiological activation or increase autonomic response
Reward  when behavior satisfies need, animal experiences drive reduction
Habit  Usual or typical response to a need
Hedonism  drive to experience pleasure
Drive states are rooted in biological needs and behavior can be predicted from environmental factors
Rooted in learning theory  need activates behavior, animal engages in behavior (trial and error) until it finds ones that satisfies the need  leads to drive reduction (i.e., negative reinforcement  arousal is aversive, reduction of arousal is reinforcing) – over time, if behavior consistently reduces the drive, it becomes a habit.
Behavior becomes the function of drive and habit
Problem  does not explain behaviors that persist after drive reduction has occurred. Also not all reinforcing behaviors satisfy biological needs (i.e., drugs are reinforcing but do not satisfy a biological need; oral sex is the same thing)
On the other hand, reinforcing behaviors ensure our survival – those that lead to reinforcing outcomes usually have survival value (i.e. access to food, safety, receptive sexual partner)
Freud  pleasure principle  organisms are hedonist. Seek out experiences that lead to pleasurable outcomes; biologically-based drive. Pleasurable behaviors may not always satisfy needs BUT, they generally do, which is why we have evolved a system that is sensitive to reinforcing or pleasurable outcomes. Remember ICSS
Thus, we are biologically prepared to receive reinforcement – this drives us to engage in bheaviors that ensure our survival BUT it also drives us to engage in behaviors that lack survival value but are reinforcing in their own right.

8. Biological Set-Points
Homeostasis  tendency for body functions to maintain equilibrium or balance
Set point  hypothetical state that indicates equilibrium
E.g., thermostat
Normal body temperature
Glucose, water, fat
Body temp can fluctuate a little without having an adverse reaction – but larger fluctuations influence ability to function – brain will motivate certain behaviors (e.g., shivering or sweating) to adjust body temp – also engage in purposive behaviors (e.g., put on a sweater).
Glucose is primary fuel for metabolism and necessary for neuronal activity  animals possess glucose receptors or glucostats that monitor glucose levels available for use in cells
Lipostatic theory  set point for body fat
Sodium and potassium – also needed for neuronal functioning – e.g.., hiking in grand canyon (purposive behavior – drinking to avoid dehydration – lead to imbalance of sodium – hyponatremia)
Deviation from biological set point (i.e., point at which the body has what it needs to perform its natural functions) will motivate compensatory behavior so that there is a return to homeostasis.

9. Negative Feedback Model

10. Purposive Functions

12. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Not all needs have a biological basis – must meet basic biological needs for food, sex, safety before can meet more psychological needs for belonging, love, self-esteem and self-actualization (state when one has achieved one’s personal goals and dreams)

13. TOTE Model
Can think of this in terms of needs and drive as well although more focused on purposive functions. Motivation reflects a self-awareness of one’s goals and where one is in relation to those goals OR real self vs ideal self
(TEST) Evaluate self in terms of ideal; when discrepant, (OPERATE) motivate behavior to bring self closer to ideal self; i.e., engage in a variety of compensatory behaviors; (TEST) evaluate self again against ideal. If match ideal, exit the system.
may be motivated but also may be inhibitory (i.e., don’t go out on Thursday night when you have an exam on Friday morning – hint hint). In order to bring the real and ideal self in line.
Problem  cannot explain why we do not engage in compensatory behaviors when our real self exceeds our ideal self.
Self-actualization  never really get there
Can also change ideal self to match real self.

14. Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic Motivation  external goal toward which an activity is directed
Behavior that is controlled by social, cultural, material reinforcers
E.g., paychecks; good grades
Intrinsic Motivation  behavior that is performed because of the value or pleasure associated with the activity
E.g., play; sports; reading
Intrinsic motivation – bheavior is driven by pleasure received and not to produce biological drive reduction or to meet a biological need

15. Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation?
Extrinsic rewards reduce intrinsically motivated behavior
Why?
Deci & Ryan – intrinsic motivation satisfies need for autonomy and personal control – extrinsic rewards take this away
Bem – attribute our behavior to the reward; i.e., we must not have liked it as much as we though we did; we did it for the reward
Example  Italian shopkeeper and neighborhood boys
Rewarding good study habits and reading behavior???? Is this a good idea?

16. Yerkes-Dodson Law Low and high levels of arousal inhibit performance
Moderate levels of arousal are associated with optimal performance
E.g., sports performance
Test anxiety and performance
SO assuming equal levels of motivation, how wdo we explain different levels of performance?
Well-learned tasks  performance increases with increased in arousal
Poorly learned tasks  U-shaped curve

17. Optimal Level of Arousal

18. Novelty and Arousal In contrast to drive theory
People seek out arousal because certain levels of arousal are pleasurable
Follows Yerkes-Dodson law with low and high levels of arousal seen less pleasurable than moderate levels of arousal
Basal level of arousal determines level of arousal that is found to be reinforcing
Drive theory specifies that motivated behavior leads to drive reduction and this reinforces the behavior
People low in arousal find higher degrees stimulation, change, incongruity, and complexity reinforcing whereas high arousal people are easily over stimulated and find lower levels of stimulation, change, incongruity, and complexity to be aversive.

19. Brain Areas Involved in Motivation
Hypothalamus controls the autonomic and endocrine systems
Autonomic Nervous System
Parasympathetic
Sympathetic
Both systems direct behaviors essential to survival
E.g., damage to hypothalamus leads to abnormalities in the 4 F’s
Reticular formation responsible for arousal
Frontal lobes responsible for planning
Amygdala controls emotion
Basal ganglia is the reward system
Basal responsible for experience of reward associated with drive reduction.

20. Eating as an Exemplar Regulatory Function Purposive Function
Role of hypothalamus
Homeostasis
Genetic influence and set-points
Glucostatic and lipostatic theories
Sweet and fat are reinforcing
Purposive Function
Time and taste
Stigma of obesity and body image
Hypothalamus  satiety center; registers hungry or full drives eating or stopping eating
Genetic influence has to do with higher and lower metabolism; body tends to hover within a certain range
Set-points  glucose is the foundation of metabolism; salt needed for proper neuronal functioning. Will motivate eating if registers low and will stop eating once threshhold has been reached.
Sweet and fatty foods are reinforcing  affect the areas of the brain associated with reward
Classical conditioning  get hungry at time of day we usually eat; fail to heed our inner signs of hunger
Ideal body image presented in the media is unrealistic; stigma of obesity and body image drive people to starve themselves or to binge and purge.